Daily Devotional For Tuesday, December 17, 2024
“Silent night, holy night. All is calm, all is bright…” It’s one of our most beautiful Christmas carols, yet something in us knows there must be something not right in the words. It was anything but a silent night! First, Mary was groaning with labor pains. Then came the wail of a new baby’s first cry. Soon, a whole group of shepherds burst on the scene. And don’t forget that all of this happened in a noisy barn. Our Christmas word for today is HOLY.
It was anything but a silent night, but it was a holy night. There’s the truth to hold on to. Holiness can happen in the midst of our messy, noisy, busy lives. The idea that the only holy moments are the quiet moments is nowhere to be found in the Bible. When Moses experienced God’s holiness as he received the ten commandments, it was with a frightening thunder and fire. Hebrews 12:19 says, “For they heard an awesome trumpet blast and a voice so terrible that they begged God to stop speaking (NLT).
When Isaiah had his encounter with God’s holiness in the temple, it was with a cacophony of images and sounds. Listen to Isaiah 6:1-4:
“It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. (2) Attending Him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. (3) They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with His glory!” (4) Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke (NLT).
Voices shaking the temple. The building filled with smoke. Holy! When John describes the holiness of heaven in Revelation 5:13, it is with the loud voices of thousands upon thousands of angels and with every creature in heaven and on earth. And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang: “Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever (NLT).
Christmas is a time to experience the holiness of God. When we talk about the Christmas holiday, the word holiday is just a shortening of the words “Holy Days.” So this Christmas, listen for God’s holiness in every circumstance. In the quietness, when you find yourself up before the rest of the family and the wonder of God’s love whispers its way into your soul. And in the noise, when everyone is talking at once around a dinner table and you find yourself grateful for God’s multiplied blessings.
You don’t have to be quiet to sense that God is holy, and you don’t need to be loud to recognize His holiness. You do need to see that God is great, and that in His greatness, He has touched your life. As Mary sang the first Christmas in Luke 1:49, “For the Mighty One is holy, and He has done great things for me” (NLT). Yes, we should see God’s holiness in the greatness of His creation and in the great things that He has done through history. Mary shows us to also make that personal by reminding yourself of how you have seen the holiness of God in the great things He has done for you.
Pastor and author D.A Carson writes this:
“People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated” (Source: D.A. Carson).
And he is right. Holiness does have a counterfeit – the lack of humility. If we are going to seek holiness this Christmas, we must be on our guard. In our attempt to be holy, we can let pride slip in what was being attempted through the power of the Holy Spirit will quickly obtain through our unholy spirit. As the Scriptures say in Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness (boasting) before a fall” (NLT).
Questions To Consider
- When you think of the word “holy,” what comes to your mind and why?
- Both the Old Testament Hebrew word [קדשׁ, qodesh] and the Greek New Testament word for holy [ἅγιος, hagios] both mean “to be set apart.” Mary was set apart to be the mother of Jesus. The night Jesus was born was set apart for His birth. Jesus Himself was set apart to seek and to save the lost. It was a holy night. Yet, it probably was not a quiet night. With animals doing their thing in the stable and a baby crying, it was anything but a “silent night.” But it was a holy night. How do we experience holiness in the midst of noise?
- If you have children or grandchildren with you, God has set them apart too. They are “holy.” Take a moment to explain to them how they are holy. Then, get them if they are able to articulate back to you their understanding of what holiness is to them.
Scripture To Meditate On: 1 Peter 1:16, “You must be holy because I (God) am holy” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Father, I take a moment to remind myself right now of the great things You have done for me. Thank You for the salvation You have given me in Jesus and for the many ways that I’ve seen You work in my life. Whether in the quiet or in the noise, I pray that my heart will be constantly drawn to worship You in these holy days of Christmas. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”
I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly